My NaNoWriMo Experience

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by @AnnieDaylon

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This week, I am guest blogging on the B.R.A.G. Medallion website. Here’s a snippet:

It’s November and, once again, information about NaNoWriMo is flooding social media. Many writers participate in this annual National Novel Writing Month. Maybe some sit by the wayside, wondering: Is it worth the effort?

I have participated in NaNoWriMo twice. In 2010, I wrote a complete first draft of my novel Castles in the Sand. In 2012, I wrote a complete first draft of my work-in-progress, Of Sea and Seed.

See more here>>>   My NaNoWriMo Experience

 

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(Thanks, @indiebrag, for invitation to blog!)

My best to you,

Annie Signature Light Blue

Pick of the Twitter: October, 2014

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Looking for writing/marketing tips? Here are my Top Twitter picks for October, 2014:

  1.  6 Traits of Strong Characters   @mythcreants via @elizabethscraig

  2.  Submission Tips for Writers  @writing_ie

  3. 99 Essential Quotes on Character Creation by M J Bush  @writinggeekery

  4. Self-Pubbed AND Traditional? An Interview With Author Pam Beason  @mollygreene

  5.  9 Practices to Inspire Your Writing in an Instant  @WriterJoMalby

  6. NaNoWriMo – Should You Take Part?  @GlynisSmy via @elizabethscraig

  7. 23 Seldom-Used Ideas for How to Use Twitter Lists  @BrianHonigman

  8. Is There A Name For That? Grammar Fun With -Nyms by Kelly Jensen @BookRiot

  9. How to Rock a Writers Conference    @TonyMaxeyRB   @TrueFactBarFact

  10. 15 Experts Share The Worst Blogging Advice!  @10minnovelist 

  11. How to Format a Short Story Manuscript for Submission: a Checklist @write_practice

  12. Preparing for NaNoWriMo: Manage your time, stay motivated, and keep the creativity flowing  @BookBaby @chrisrobley

 Many thanks to Tweeters and Bloggers alike!

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 My best to you,

Annie Signature Light Blue

Conference Riches, Blue Pencils, and Pitches

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by @AnnieDaylon

SIWC 2104 camera 004For the past three years, I have attended the Surrey International Writers Conference as a volunteer. (SIWC: My Volunteer Experience)

This year, because I wished to include Blue Pencil and Pitch sessions, I paid the price of admission (Saturday only.)

My day was rich with many events: riveting keynote speech by Cory Doctorow, an agent/editor insight panel, SiWC Idol panel, Rookie Mistakes workshop, and a Creating Kick-Ass Characters workshop. In addition, I became reacquainted with conference buddies, and met up with author friends.

I’ve been writing for several years now and feel very comfortable  walking into Blue Pencil and Pitch sessions; in fact, on Saturday, I did so without a twinge of anxiety. (It helped that a wonderful post jumped into my Twitter feed on Friday:  How to Rock a Writers Conference. It was a reminder: have a goal, but have fun, too.)

Prescheduled on my agenda were two appointments: one Blue Pencil, one Pitch. Once at the conference, I lined up to sign up for a second session in each (first-come, first-served basis.)

My two Blue Pencil sessions were back-to-back, one at 11:15, the second at 11:30. For my prescheduled session, I chose a writer who was familiar with the Celtic world: I wanted to see if my second chapter, which references the Great Famine, rang true. She was lavish in her support of what I was doing and offered suggestions, such as the addition of a third element, to enhance it.
I lucked out in the line-up-to-sign-up for my second Blue Pencil. My appointment was with a writing professor/accomplished author. I deliberately showed her a different chapter, the opening. Once again, I received great feedback and suggestions ( i.e. use more internal reaction of narrator.) 

After I finished my Blue Pencils, I lined up for a second Pitch session. Not one of the agents I wanted to see was available, but there was one free “now.” I  jumped at the opportunity and switched to ‘pitch’ mode.  After initial introductions, the conversation, paraphrased, was:
Me: “They just offered me this slot and I jumped, without knowing what your area of expertise is.”
Him: “I am looking for stories to turn into screen plays.”
Me: “So you’re looking for another Gone Girl?”
Him (eyes bright): “Do you have that?”
Me: “Nope. Do you mind if I just practice my pitch with you?”
Him: “No problem.”

So I pitched my historical fiction trilogy. He offered advice that would improve my pitch. I listened. During lunch, I received and overheard tips about presenting a pitch. Here’s the rundown:

  • Memorize, don’t read, your pitch.

  • Focus on story.

  • Insert history afterwards  (if, like me, you’re writing historical fiction).

  • Be prepared to say who the comparable writers are (I floundered a bit on this one. Know better now.)

  • Know your word count.

  • Be prepared to answer the question “why are you writing this?”

I incorporated all of the above at my 1:40 session.

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Overall advice? Go with a goal. Be prepared. Be open to everything. Enjoy the opportunity to have professionals offer advice. Be determined to have fun.

My thanks to  all at SiWC, including those amazing volunteers, who made my experience so enjoyable. I left feeling inspired!

Please subscribe to my Author Newsletter by placing your first name and email address in the space provided on the right. Many thanks!

My best to you,

Annie Signature Light Blue

 

The Thing with Feathers (A Short Story)

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by @AnnieDaylon

 

 I love to enter short story contests (see previous post: Why Enter Story Contests?) In my 2014 goals, I listed that I would enter a few. (One done in January, one in October. Yay!)
I enter to learn, not to win. I enter for the fun and for the feeling of accomplishment that the marathon of the novel does not provide.

Here is an entry that did manage to land second place this year:

The Thing With Feathers*
© Annie Daylon

shutterstock_121881667 woman birdsAirborne at last, after a lifetime of longing.

Bittersweet memories float past, memories of emerging from the womb, hoping to fly, flailing like a nestling, disillusioned by gravity. Childhood slips by in a blur of fairy stories and bluebirds and magic carpets and angels’ wings. Deeds of derring-do slide in: toppling from tree branches, leaping from monkey bars, jumping from a second-floor balcony. Echoes of painful cries ring out as I recall dropping like Icarus to broken bones and harsh reality.

Footfall (not free flight) was to be my transportation.

Grounded, literally, yet one day I fluttered with hope when I spotted a skein of Canada Geese scissoring the sky. Hope is the thing with feathers, Dickinson’s apposite metaphor, instantly flitted in. I stared at my bony arms which were peppered with freckles and wisps of hair, nary a feather in sight. Juxtaposed with tears of frustration was dissolution of hope. Knowing that I could never soar with birds, I shelved the dream and faced the future, determined to live my life to the fullest.

Love tapped on my door and I ushered it in.

Marriage followed and, with it, the free flowing joy of motherhood.

Never planned for divorce, but there it was and there I was.

On my own.

Plop!

Quickly, so as not to dissolve in a puddle of loneliness, I found a platonic partner with whom I happily shared more than two decades of living expenses, childrearing, and world travels.

Retirement years loomed, yet I, still committed to living large, never gave them, nor money, a thought.

“Save for your golden years,” warned my adult daughter, “else you’ll end up residing in my den.”

“The truth of the matter,” I replied, “is that life is short and I intend to experience all the joys of this earth, and that I will continue to travel until…”

“Until death do you part this mortal coil?” she grinned.

Vibrations shook me momentarily, a cold shiver passing through.

Was it really days later, after a minor surgical procedure, that doctors told me I had mere hours left? X-rays confirmed their diagnosis and soon I was gone, my body cremated, my ashes residing in an urn, in my daughter’s den, just as she had predicted.

Yes, my earthbound life was over and my loving daughter, knowing my deepest desire, chose a blustery day, this very day, to fling my ashes into the wind. Zillions of tiny particles, the remains of me, now sweep through the air like a murmuration of starlings, joyous, soaring, and I, after a lifetime of longing, am airborne at last.

*****

 

The above story was written in January for an Alphabet Acrostic contest. The opening, “Airborne at last,” was given. The criteria? “Complete your story in 26 sentences, each beginning with words in the sequence of the English alphabet.”

The learning? I have entered this contest before, each time loving the experience of  reading the dictionary to search for words.  (Yes, X is limiting, but there are ways around it.) The fun? Love it! (This particular contest is available annually through The Brucedale Press. The sixteenth annual Alphabet Acrostic contest will be announced sometime this month (October, 2014.) Check their website!

*The Thing with Feathers was first published by The Brucedale Press in The Leaf #34, Spring 2014.

My questions for you: Did you notice as you read the story that I was progressing through the alphabet? If not, did you go back to check? 🙂

 

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My best to you,

Annie Signature Light Blue

Favorite Quotes about Writing

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by @AnnieDaylon

I’m  drawn to quotes about writing. Here are ten of my favorites:

shutterstock_110397353 (2) writing1. “There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” ~ W. Somerset Maugham

2. “Be obscure clearly.” ~ E. B. White

3. “I do not like to write. I like to have written.”  ~ Gloria Steinem

4. “Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” ~ Gene Fowler

5. “When you take stuff from one writer, it’s plagiarism but when you take it from many writers, it’s research.” ~ Wilson Mizner

6. “Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.” ~ Jules Renard

 7. “Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.” ~ Author Unknown

 8. “History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.” ~ Winston Churchill

 9. “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” ~ Douglas Adams

10. “If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write.” ~ Stephen King

 

Got any favorites you think I should add? Please let me know.

Please subscribe to my Author Newsletter by placing your first name and your email address in the space provided on the right.

My best to you,

Annie Signature Light Blue

Bonus quote:  “Strong nouns. Strong verbs. Kick descriptors to the curb.” ~ Me

 

 

Make Writing Your Priority

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by @AnnieDaylon

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Today I am guest blogging  at BookMarketingTools. Here’s a snippet:

Indie authors today are faced with an overwhelming array of choices. Herein lies a paradox: there are too many choices, especially in social media. It is easy for writers to lose sight of the most important thing, the writing itself. Yes, there is a need to develop an online presence but, first and foremost, there is a mandate to create product. In order to do that, writers must place writing above everything else.

Here are some tips to help you do that:

Read more here…

 

My best to you,

Annie Signature Light Blue

 

 

12 Opening Lines: What’s the Book Title?

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by @AnnieDaylon

 

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If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others:
read a lot and write a lot. ~  Stephen King

I do both.

What follows are some of my favorite opening lines.

Can you name the titles of the books?

(See answers below!)

  1. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

  2. “Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.”

  3. “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

  4. “As a boy, I dreamed of fishing before I went, and went fishing before I caught anything, and knew fishermen before I became one.”

  5. “I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster.”

  6. “Elspeth died while Robert was standing in front of a vending machine watching tea shoot into a small plastic cup.”

  7. “Riding up the winding road of St. Agnes Cemetery in the back of the rattling old truck, Francis Phelan became aware that the dead, even more than the living, settled down in neighborhoods.”

  8. “My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was 14 when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.”

  9. “Watch your step. Keep your wits about you; you will need them. This city I am bringing you to is vast and intricate, and you have not been here before.”

  10. “It happens that I am going through a period of great unhappiness and loss just now. All my life I’ve heard people speak of finding themselves in acute pain, bankrupt in spirit and body, but I’ve never understood what they meant.”

  11. “They’re all dead now.”

  12. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

 

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 Answers:

  1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)
  2. Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler (2001)
  3. The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley (1953)
  4. Lines in the Water by David Adams Richards (1998)
  5. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (2005)
  6. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger (2009)
  7. Ironweed by William Kennedy (1979)
  8. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (2002)
  9. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber (2002)
  10. Unless by Carol Shields (2002)
  11. Fall On Your Knees by Anne-Marie McDonald (1996)
  12. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)

If you have any favorite opening lines, please share. Would love to read them! Might even read the whole book!

A FREE SHORT STORY for you when you subscribe to my Author Newsletter! Simply put your first name and your email address in the space provided on the upper right.

My best to you,

Annie Signature Light Blue

Writing Historical Fiction? Best Tip Ever!

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by @ AnnieDaylon

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Looking for a great tip for writing historical fiction?

Try this:  “Once upon a time, it was now.”

I found this pearl of wisdom in The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction by successful historical fiction author, James Alexander Thom. Thom sees this concept as most effective for storytelling and has adopted it as his credo. The author, Thom says, must write as if everything is happening now, with no thought about future. He further explains:

  • “Today is now.

  • Yesterday was now.

  • Tomorrow will be now.”

How do authors of historical fiction make any time now? By taking the reader there, into that exact time.

For me, this means  that authors must provide not only authentic historical details, but also authentic character reactions. Yes, the authors know the future. Yes, the readers know the future. But the characters know nothing of the future. Authors must make readers so enmeshed that they forget the future, that they are there, now, with the characters, looking forward, experiencing the same emotions, reactions, and  uncertainty the characters do.

I am in the editing  process of Book I of a trilogy which is set on the island of Newfoundland, one hundred years ago and the phrase “Once upon a time, it was now” is never far from my mind. I am determined that my ‘once upon a time’ will be a now.

Many thanks to James Alexander Thom! 🙂

Do you have a favorite tip for writing historical fiction (or any other genre?) If so, please send it along!

 

Please subscribe to my Author Newsletter by including your first name and email address in the space provided on the right. Many thanks!

My best to you,

Annie Signature Light Blue

Putting on my ‘Top’ Hat…

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by @AnnieDaylon

 

shutterstock_150959219 1Ever struggle with wondering if you are doing enough, or if you are doing the right thing as an author? I certainly do.

A while back, I attended a workshop by successful indie author, Jodi McIsaac, who listed twelve hats that an indie author must wear, among them: writer, editor, bookkeeper, webmaster, marketer, distributor, etc. Sometimes my head is spinning with choices: Which hat today? Do I need to update my site? Do I focus on marketing? Do I work on my budget? It’s dizzying!

I have come to realize that I cannot do it all; when I try to wear too many of these hats in one day, my writing (quantity and quality) takes a hit. I have to set priorities.

Recently, I found two helpful posts that deal with making such choices:
What Learning to Say No Really Means by Alexis Grant, and
Fighting Overwhelm: How I am Learning to Refocus My Workload by Joanna Penn.
Both talk about managing workload, about focusing your time, about giving up some things, even things you don’t want to give up.

The key for me?
Deciding the most important thing and doing that FIRST and FOREMOST. Right now, that happens to be writing the first book in a novel trilogy. I am immersed in it, writing every morning for a minimum of three hours.
Yes, I tweet. Yes, I blog. But mostly, I write.

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If you are juggling too many hats: stop, focus, prioritize, and choose the hat that best fits right now.

For me the right thing, right now, is the write thing. That’s my ‘Top’ Hat!

What’s yours?

 

A free story will wing its way to you when subscribe to my Author Newsletter by placing your first name and email address in the space provided on the upper right. Many thanks!

My best to you,

Annie Signature Light Blue

In the Company of Readers

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by @AnnieDaylon

shutterstock_134073986Little did I know when I grumbled over precious time spent getting my novel onto the shelves of a local food chain that the effort would result in a magical evening in the company of avid readers. I was invited to a meeting of the Book Travellers, an octet of women whose group demeanor is a combination of the delicacy of porcelain and the strength of spider silk, women who have woven friendship into a book club that has endured two decades.

The Book Travellers are so named because each member returns from every trip with souvenir bookmarks for the group. The group chooses their books a year in advance, at a sleepover, in a cabin, on a nearby lake, each June. Through their meticulous ‘bookkeeper’, they keep track of every meeting (attendance, books read, and comments) and have done so since 1998.

They take turns hosting the event and, during my visit, they appeared to be as comfortable in their host’s home as they would be in their own. (author note: a wonderfully infectious state of ease.)

Our evening began with tea and dessert and progressed to discussion of my novel and books in general.

Elizabeth made Lemon Pavlova. Delicious!

Elizabeth made Lemon Pavlova. Delicious!

Personal details slid through book talk, information about connections made through vocation—librarian, teacher, nurse, accountant—and avocation—curling, volunteering, walking, travelling. There were snippets with giggles about surprise birthday jaunts and fragments with sighs about thoughtful memorial gifts.

Overall, a delightful evening  in the company of readers, one which served not only to deepen my fervor for reading but also to re-ignite my passion for telling stories. More importantly, I experienced a surprising gift: the joy of being in the presence of unmatched  strength and vitality. Truly Canada’s Steel Magnolias.  

And so, to: Elizabeth, Bonnie, Judy, Randi, Nancy, Magda, Leona, and Kathy, I express my heartfelt thanks.

My best to all of you, always,

Annie Signature Light Blue

 

Please subscribe to my Author Newsletter by including your first name and email address in the space provided on the upper right. 

P. S. Dear Writers, Marketing can be a pain in the posterior: In my case, it took five trips to the store, several forms that had to be filled, trashed, replaced, filled again and edited; it also took a few emails to the wrong people before finding the right people. I was left wondering if time-consuming grunt details are worth it. They are. Do it.